Eberly warns in her email that visitors now face the risk of arrest if they try to visit the farm

The National Park Service seems to be Obama Inc's vehicle of choice for showy theatrical "government shutdown affects you" productions.

A WW2 memorial that doesn't require staffing is being barricaded to keep WW2 veterans out and a Colonial Farm that isn't even operated or funded by the government was forcibly shut at virtual gunpoint.

The Claude Moore Colonial Farm, in McLean, Virginia, presents a slice of 1771 to the thousands of visitors who visit it every year.

The Claude Moore Colonial Farm, Eberly says, has thrived even as the federal government has treated it with “benign neglect” for decades. That benign neglect would serve it better than the barricades now surrounding it.

Eberly writes that the NPS has already gone out of its way to disrupt an event at the farm: “The first casualty of this arbitrary action was the McLean Chamber of Commerce who were having a large annual event at the Pavilion on Tuesday evening. The NPS sent the Park Police over to remove the Pavilion’s staff and Chamber volunteers from the property while they were trying to set up for their event.

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Eberly says that individuals and families saved the farm when the NPS zeroed its budget in 1980, so there is no need for the service now to shut it down or barricade its facilities, as it is doing. The NPS claims, in its actions at the World War II Memorial in Washington this week, that it doesn’t want to go around closing monuments and parks, but it is taking these actions because it is worried about staffing and security.

Eberly’s response is as clear as can be. “What utter crap. We have operated the Farm successfully for 32 years after the NPS cut the Farm from its budget in 1980 and are fully staffed and prepared to open today. But there are barricades at the Pavilions and entrance to the Farm. And if you were to park on the grass and visit on your own, you run the risk of being arrested. Of course, that will cost the NPS staff salaries to police the Farm against intruders while leaving it open will cost them nothing.”

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Closing the self-sufficient farm “is not about the money,” Eberly said. “It’s about making a point.”

Eberly warns in her email that visitors now face the risk of arrest if they try to visit the farm, not because it cannot be staffed — her staff were ready to run the farm today, as they have for years — but because the National Park Service, in her words, has become “arrogant, arbitrary and vindictive.”

We weren’t even informed of this until mid-day Monday in spite of their managers having our email addresses and cell numbers... Every appeal our Board of Directors made to the NPS administration was denied. They feel that as “landlord” they have absolute control of their property.

We have operated the Farm successfully for 32 years after the NPS cut the Farm from its budget in 1980 and are fully staffed and prepared to open today. But there are barricades at the Pavilions and entrance to the Farm. And if you were to park on the grass and visit on your own, you run the risk of being arrested. Of course, that will cost the NPS staff salaries to police the Farm against intruders while leaving it open will cost them nothing.

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We don’t see how that benefits the mission of the National Park Service if it really is to preserve and protect. Or is it really just about control?

Control is what this entire battle is about. Will America be more like the Farm or like the NPS?